Type 1 diabetes needs insulin treatment to maintain blood glucose within normal values and prevent serious health complications.
Type 2 diabetes may also need it with healthy habits and other medical treatments for a better quality of life.
When a diabetic is not injected insulin, definitively or for prolonged periods, glucose cannot be properly regulated and this can cause consequences such as:
Hyperglycemia: If there is no insulin, glucose will not enter the cells and will remain in the blood, causing an increase in the values that cause hyperglycemia.
Typical symptoms: the lack of insulin will cause symptoms of the disease as constantly urinating, be thirst and a lot of appetite, tiredness and weight loss.
Diabetic ketoacidosis: When glucose increases too much, you run the risk of developing this picture, which usually occurs in people with type 1 diabetes and is characterized by symptoms such as nausea, agitated breathing, dehydration, abdominal pain and bad breath.If it is not treated in time, it can cause death.
Non -ketonic hyperosmolar hyperosmolar state: usually occurs in people with type 2 diabetes. This situation also puts life at risk and should be treated in a hospital urgently.The signs that manifest can be severe dehydration, mental confusion and loss of the state of consciousness.
Chronic complications: unlike acute complications such as diabetic ketoacidosis, these develop slowly over the years.Chronic hyperglycemia causes damage to the different tissues of the body, causing, for example, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular diseases, among others.
How long can a diabetic without insulin be?
A diabetic can be days or a week without insulin administration, but this will cause acute or chronic short or long term complications that harm their health and can even cause their death.
For this reason, treatment is essential to maintain a healthy life, regulate blood glucose values and avoid serious consequences.
An acute complication, which occurs a few days after being without insulin in people with type 1 diabetes, is diabetic ketoacidosis.This occurs when there is hyperglycemia and fats suffer a degradation process that forms substances called "ketone bodies."
This picture is characterized by presenting symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, agitated breathing, dehydration and breath to decomposition.In this sense, if it is not treated in time you can end the life of who suffers it.
In the long term, unrelated chronic hyperglycemia can cause damage to different parts of the body: eyes, kidneys, legs and feet, heart and brain.Cardiovascular, brain diseases, loss of vision and renal condition are some of the serious consequences.
For these reasons, experts advise to follow insulin treatment and not leave it for long periods or definitively since this harms the health of those who suffer from diabetes.